Incidental Vocabulary Learning Through Listening to Teacher Talk

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Incidental Vocabulary Learning Through Listening to Teacher Talk View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Scholarship@Western Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-30-2018 2:00 PM Incidental Vocabulary Learning through Listening to Teacher Talk Zhouhan Jin The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Webb, Stuart The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Education A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Zhouhan Jin 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Recommended Citation Jin, Zhouhan, "Incidental Vocabulary Learning through Listening to Teacher Talk" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5652. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5652 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Teacher talk plays an important role in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom because EFL learners have limited access to input and output outside of the classroom (Webb & Nation, 2017). However, few studies focus on incidental vocabulary acquisition through listening to teacher talk, especially with EFL learners. The present study investigates the effects of teacher talk on incidental vocabulary learning including both single word items and collocations. The relationship between vocabulary learning gains and three factors (frequency of exposure, L1 translation, and note-taking) were also explored. The results indicated that (a) teacher talk contributed to vocabulary learning of both single word items and collocations, (b) using L1 translation to explain target word meanings during teacher talk contributed to larger gains on the immediate posttest, (c) writing target words in notes had a positive effect on learning single words but not collocations, and (d) frequency of occurrence did not affect learning. Keywords Incidental learning; teacher talk; vocabulary; collocation; frequency of occurrence; L1 translation; note-taking i Acknowledgements I would like to first express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Stuart Webb. Your brilliant guidance and invaluable feedback supported and inspired me throughout my studies. I have learned a lot through your insightful comments, organizing skills, and thoughtful critiques of my work. I would also like to thank teachers and students in China for helping me collect data. I would never be able to finish this massive work without your help. The acknowledgments would not be complete without my appreciation to my parents and my boyfriend. When I encountered troubles and felt upset, they were always there, believing in me and supporting me. A big thank goes to my boyfriend, Yifan, who tried his best to help me deal with problems I have encountered during the data analysis stage. Finally, a special thank goes to Aki, Takumi, Su and every other friend who has enlightened me on my research. You all kept me going and supported me with my thesis. ii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... ii List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... vi List of Appendices .............................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1.0 Thesis Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Purpose and Rationale ................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Theoretical Framework................................................................................................ 3 1.3.1 Incidental Vocabulary Learning ............................................................................ 3 1.3.2 Input Hypothesis (IH) ........................................................................................... 4 1.3.3 Code-switching ..................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Human Ethics Requirements........................................................................................ 6 1.5 Thesis Organization ..................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2: Article .................................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 7 2.3 Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 8 2.3.1 Factors that may Contribute to Incidental Vocabulary Learning .......................... 11 2.4 The Present Study...................................................................................................... 13 iii 2.5 Method ...................................................................................................................... 14 2.5.1 Participants ......................................................................................................... 14 2.5.2 Materials............................................................................................................. 15 2.5.3 Target Words ...................................................................................................... 16 2.5.4 Treatment ........................................................................................................... 18 2.5.5 Instruments ......................................................................................................... 19 2.5.6 Procedure ........................................................................................................... 22 2.5.7 Analysis .............................................................................................................. 23 2.6 Results ...................................................................................................................... 24 2.7 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 28 2.8 Pedagogical Implications ........................................................................................... 31 2.9 Limitations ................................................................................................................ 32 2.10 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 33 Chapter 3: Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 34 3.0 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 34 3.1 Review of Findings ................................................................................................... 34 3.2 Implications and Directions for Future Research........................................................ 35 3.2.1 Directions for Future Research............................................................................ 35 3.2.2 Implications ........................................................................................................ 37 References .......................................................................................................................... 38 Appendices ......................................................................................................................... 45 Appendix B: Open Questions .......................................................................................... 46 iv Appendix C: Meaning-recall Test .................................................................................... 47 Appendix D: Multiple-choice Test .................................................................................. 49 Curriculum Vitae ................................................................................................................ 50 v List of Tables Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations of the Five Word Frequency Levels ...................... 14 Table 2 Target Single Word Items ....................................................................................... 16 Table 3 Node Word Frequency and Frequency of Occurrence of the Target Collocations ... 17 Table 4 Means and Standard Deviations for Measuring Receptive Knowledge of Single words ........................................................................................................................................... 24 Table 5 Means and Standard Deviations for Measuring Receptive
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